Community Central Science, Spring 2016

February 4, 2016 Community Central

Across Lewiston and Portland, Community Central programming for 2016 has begun!

In both cities, 4-H Faculty and Community Education Assistants (CEAs) are engaging youth in experiential STEM-based programming in the classroom, in community partner organization’s after-school programs, and at Lewiston and Portland Housing Authorities.

In Lewiston, spring sessions have begun with a focus on math in science.

Youth have looked at polygons and regular polygons using glow sticks…

  • Glowsticks set up in a lattice of connected triangles.
    Youth built a lattice of regular polygon triangles: all of the sides and angles had to be the same!

    Tricky question: How many triangles are there in this photo?

  • Hint: What size triangles are you looking at?

…built marshmallow catapults…

Catapults built with plastic spoons and popsickle sticks
Which catapult will launch our marshmallows further distances?

Always using the same amount of force to launch the marshmallow, how can we change the distance it travels?

…and helped stuffed animals travel down zip lines!

Stuffed dog ready to ride down the zip line.
Ready to fly!

How do you think the height of the start of the zip line might affect the animal’s flight?

For more information about Community Central, please contact Kristy L Ouellette, PI of the Maine 4-H Community Central Program kristy.ouellette@maine.edu.

For more information on the Community Central Teen Leader Team, please contact Laura Personette, laura.personette@maine.edu.

Community Central is a project funded by the USDA’s Children, Youth, and Families at Risk (CYFAR) Sustainable Community Projects program.